


Fallen Hero

by liesorlife



Series: FAB FIVE FEB [5]
Category: Thunderbirds, thunderbirds are go
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:27:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23086246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liesorlife/pseuds/liesorlife
Summary: John sends his brother on an impossible mission. Sorry 😐.Written for fab five feb 2020. Hint used: paper
Series: FAB FIVE FEB [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1648882
Comments: 22
Kudos: 16





	Fallen Hero

John has never been one for flashy gimmicks. He likes a quiet life. Up on thunderbird 5, with Eos and nothing but stars for miles around him. Yes, there are times he misses earth, but an hour in the company of Alan and Gordon is enough to make him realise that life up here is the life he deserves! 

Waking up to the sound of an emergency alarm, John groans. Just once he would like a full 8 hours! “Eos?” He calls out to his assistant. 

“As far as I can make out John there is a ship sinking off the western coast of Australia”. 

John is on it, all thoughts of a lie in forgotten as he leaps into action. 

*

On earth his brothers are all fighting over the coffee machine, again! This is why he doesn’t do earthlings! 

“Guys!” 

Nothing. They don’t even notice his presence 

“GUYS!” 

That got them! Scott immediately breaking away from the battle to acknowledge Johns presence. 

“Go ahead John” Scott tells him, grabbing the cushion Alan was about to hit him with and throwing it at Virgil, who catches it one handed and whacks Gordon with it. 

“Will you all just grow up?” John tells them exasperatedly. 

“Nah Johnny, this is more fun!” Alan tells him laughing. 

“Well it’s time to get serious, Alan. Gordon, there’s a ship sinking off the coast of Australia” he tells them. 

“On it John” Gordon replies serious now. “Come on Virg, I will let you give me a lift!” 

Virgil doesn’t bother with a snappy comeback, they have lives to save. 

*

It’s a really long mission, taking its toll on both Virgil and Gordon and they could really use backup, but they won’t admit it not to Scott and not to each other. Owing to a technical fault which stops the lifeboats from releasing, Virgil and Gordon have to manually evacuate the 500 passengers. 

“Hey virgil, is that everyone?” Gordon asks, his brother has a complete passenger manifest and was supposed to be ticking them off as they got out of thunderbird 2 and onto dry land. 

“No Gordon, the captain is missing” Virgil informs him. 

“Okay thanks. I will keep looking” 

“Be quick about it thunderbird 4. The hull of breaking apart, and if the boiler explodes...? You have less than 2 minutes Gordo” 

“It’s okay Virgil, I have got this”. Gordon reassures him, heading back down to the engine room. 

It is quickly becoming a furnace, and he knows he has to move fast. The captain is staring blankly at the engine. 

“Captain? We have to leave. Now! The ship is doomed”. 

He turns to look at Gordon, his eyes are wild with the distress of watching his life fall apart before his eyes. 

“I can’t leave this ship, this ship is my whole life. I have devoted fifty years of my life to this ship, and if it is going down. Then so am I. And nothing you will say is going to change my mind” 

“But the ship isn’t worth your life captain!” Gordon insists. “Please come with me and we can both get out of here alive, there will be other ships. But you only have one life” Gordon is pleading with the man to save his own life, he doesn’t have to go down with the ship. 

“Thunderbird 4? Get clear now!” Virgil insists. “The pressure in the boiler room is at maximum, Gordon! It’s going too....”

He doesn’t even get to finish the sentence before the ship is on fire. The explosion rips through the engine room, the noise deafening Virgil as he screams his brothers name. 

“Virgil?” John calls, “Virgil answer me? What happened?”

“Gordon” is all he can say, over and over again. 

Scott and Alan have been watching the horror unfold before them. 

They don’t say a word to each other, as they race to gear up, both heading to thunderbird 1 sitting in a tense silence as Scott races to get to their brothers. 

The fire is still tearing through the ship with no sign of slowing down. As Scott approaches the danger zone. 

“Virgil?” He asks 

“Nothing Scott, I cant get near the ship, and I can’t make contact with him. I tried the grenades but I don’t have enough it’s not even made a dent. We have to find him”. 

Virgil sounds desperate. And that sounds wrong. He is the calm one, the one who holds Scott together. 

*

It’s hours before they find him, buried under a mountain of rubble. They know as soon as they find him, that there is no hope. 

Gordon has gone. 

Virgil wraps his badly burned body in a blanket and carries his lifeless body back to thunderbird 2, as gently and carefully as he knows how. He isn’t crying. He can’t cry. Gordon wouldn’t want him to cry. 

“Scott?” Alan calls weakly, the smell of his own brothers charred flesh has him feeling sick to his stomach. 

Scott turns to him just has Alan throws up, unlike Virgil, he is crying. 

“Scott, the captain is still alive” 

*

John looks down at the piece of paper, the tribute to his Gordon, that has his brothers whole life on it. 

His beautiful, smart, prankster brother whose life has been so tragically cut short. And he knows that he will never be able to forgive himself. He sent Gordon on this suicide mission. 

This is all his fault. He just knows it. 

Bracing himself he walks passed the crowds waiting outside the church and enters the building. It is full as people from all over the world come to pay their respects to the first member of international rescue to lose their life since the great Jeff Tracy. 

Joining Alan, Scott and Virgil as the limousine with Gordon arrives. The four of them take their places at the four corners of their fallen hero’s coffin. Looking at the steely eyed look on Alan’s face they start to bring him up to the front, passed the crowd. They can hear people sobbing, but they don’t look round, focused solely on their task. 

Alan falters when they reach the front, and he looks at Lady Penelope. Tears are silently streaming down her face, they all know she was in love with Gordon and they never got the opportunity to explore their full potential. But she gets up. Walking over to Alan, she takes him in her arms and leads him back to the bench, where Kayo, grandma, brains and Parker are all waiting for them. 

John hasn’t spoken a single word since he sent Gordon to the ship. The guilt is eating him from the inside. A big part of Johns heart died on that ship with Gordon, and he knows that his life will never be the same again.


End file.
